The King's Speech

Comments (0)

Transcript of The King's Speech

By: Ashley Webster The King's Speech Rhetorical Analysis Historical Background Ethos Pathos Important Lines SOAPSTone Choice of words The King's Speech Movie Albert Frederick Arthur George was born on December 14, 1895 in York Cottage at Sandringham. He didn’t like people staring at him. He certainly didn’t like public speaking (since he had a profound stammer). He met Lionel Logue, who was a speech therapist, and ultimately he helped him fix his stutter. His brother Edward VII gave up the throne and it was thrust upon George. Then WWII hit Great Britain and King George VI was forced to give a speech through the radio. The speech was given on September 3, 1939. The king had to build up his ethos because the country knew of his stutter and had no faith in him, even though he was their king. He doesn't significantly stutter throughout the whole speech which assisted his audience to listen and believe they could win the war The king delivers an inspirational speech, while keeping it somber to match the seriousness of the war. He states "For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war." He understands that the country is still wounded from WWI. He also recognizes that "The task will be hard. There may be dark days ahead.." Speaker: A stuttering, accidental King George VI.

Occasion: September 3, 1939

Audience: Great Britain (one the brink of war) and the whole world

Purpose: To unite and inspire the nation

Subject: Declaring war (especially WWII)

Tone: Inspiring 1) "with the same depth of feeling... as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself." - He wants to make it seem like the people and the king are all in the war together, united.

2) "We shall prevail." - He makes the war the common goal and the common plight of the people. The king uses "we" to speak as one of the people. He also uses "our enemies," not Britain's enemies. This makes the speech more personal, from commoner to commoner. He doesn't refer to the audience as citizens or subjects, but as "my people" which emphasizes the closeness between the king and the people. King George uses "God" because they all share the same values. There was a movie made about the speech in 2010 called the King's Speech. It starred Colin Firth as the king and Geoffery Rush as Lionel Logue. It won 4 Academy Awards, 1 Golden Globe, 1 Grammy,and 2 SAG Awards. Overall the movie won 75 awards. Video Questions?